Hellfire pepper: the spice of the Holy Infernal Empire
From the humblest farmer to the Emperor himself, everybody in the Holy Infernal Empire seems to love the spicy hot food: pungent, to be precise. It looks like most infernal dishes, to be complete, must overwhelm the mouth with heat and (almost) pain. The ubiquitous presence of this flavor is sort of a shock for the foreigners and can make the first days (or weeks) of staying quite the culinary challenge.
Red pepper is the signature spice of the infernal cuisine, and its most important variety is the Hellfire Pepper.
The hellfire pepper has a “horned” or “flaming” appearance, and its color is a red so intense that faintly glows.
The Hellfire pepper grows the Western Principalities, in the regions near the Nine Pillars, the soaring stone ruins of the Circles of Hell. The Pillars are pieces of the Beyond, the extradimensional kingdoms that fell on the world during the Collapse, in this case, the afterlife of the damned.
Among fertile hills and verdant landscapes, there are patches of karst land: here and there the ground opens in sinkholes, crevasses, and caves. From some of these cracks come out roaring flames or scalding water, these are called the Demon Spings. These springs can be actual springs of bubbling hot water or calm fire pits, like big and perpetual bonfires. If a spring is “tame” it can be encased in a building and become the heart of a thermal complex.
In other cases, they have irregular or even expòlosive behavior that makes it impossible to cage them with bricks. These “restless” demon springs are the perfect ground to grow Hellfire peppers: the plants seem to feed on the energies of these extraplanar features.
The hellfire peppers are incredibly pungent. To make them more palatable the peppers are used dry and grounded, mixed with less “hot” varieties, like paprika. These mixes are called “twenty”, “twelve”, “ten” etc. based on the fraction of “powerful” stuff to the “cutting” stuff: if there is one-quarter of hellfire pepper and the rest is paprika you have a “four” (so the lower the number the hottest the spice will be).
The Hellfire Peppers are most “powerful” when fresh and eating one of those will cause accelerated heartbeat, sweating, crying, tunnel vision, confusion, hallucinations. Travelers who dared a bite a fresh pepper describe their taste as “having your mouth burned by flames of pure pain”. There are recorded instances of people who died by the distress caused by eating one whole pepper in a bite.
Some taverns hold contests among patrons to see who can take more bites. The entertainment comes from the grotesque expressions and comical suffering of the contenders. These contests are considered very low brow: a person of good manners knows how to maintain decorum even in front of the spiciest of the dishes.
Hellfire pepper is said to “open” the taste buds and the stomach, helping degustation and digestion alike. In the Western Empire, the spiciest dish of the meal is served first, to prepare the mouth and grow the hunger; in the Eastern Empire, the hottest dish is the one before the dessert, to help digest the previous courses and pave the way for sweet and subtle flavors.
It is also said that the Hellfire pepper has “purifying” proprieties, cleansing what they touch. The “folk explanation” is that they absorb the proprieties of the fires of Hell near which they grow, but scholars are still trying to figuring it out. There’s clearly a connection between the punishment of the damned, the pain caused by the fires, and the peppers.
Peppers, thanks to this propriety, have medicinal purposes, like disinfect wounds. They are very effective, proved one is willing to endure the blinding pain.
The peppers are popular in the lower classes because of their intense flavor that helps mask spoiling food or ingredients of dubious origin.
The aristocracy, thanks to their devil blood, seems immune to the hotness of the pepper, or at least they taste different for them: instead of the almost pain of the pungency they seem to experience another indescribable flavor.
Hot pepper helps to conserve food and delay spoiling and so it’s a must for all kinds of preserves and sausages.
Some low-grade pepper mix, like a twenty o twelve, is put in almost every soup or stew for the color: red food is deemed more appetizing.
The Hellfire Peppers are famous for their glowing red color and are used as the main component of a pigment called Agony Red.
This red is popular among painters for its vibrant hue but it’s not easy to manage or prepare. To prepare the pigment one must handle highly concentrated pepper extract that burns the skin and cause twinges of pain. Using Agony Red is a way for artists to impress their colleagues, showing off ability in color mixing and pigment preparation.
A concentrated version of Agony Red is used in the legal system as punishment. Blasphemers, forgers, liars under oath, and other people that committed a crime with their words are forced to write their crime on their flesh with Agony Red. Nuns of the Order of the Divine Retaliation will write on the parts of the body the guilty can’t reach. This unusual (for the foreigners) punishment is in line with the jurisprudential tradition of the “counterpoise” where the punishment must fit the crime in symbolic and material ways.
An alchemically distilled version of Agony Red is used as a poison. It is a rare and theatrical way of assassination: the victim will die for the pain, screaming, tossing and turning, and begging to be relieved by such torment. Not a subtle method but sure to quench any thirst for revenge. Furthermore, the deformed face of the victim, forever froze in a scream of pure suffering, will surely send a clear message to anyone.
